Cohen, Latimer in heated debate

Rivals for Senate seat clash over health care, more

Oct. 24, 2012

Robert Cohen, left, and George Latimer, candidates for state Senate District 37, face off Tuesday in a debate sponsored by the Westchester County Association in Rye Brook. / Joe Larese/The Journal News

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RYE BROOK — Assemblyman George Latimer and Bob Cohen, his rival for a state Senate seat, clashed and sniped at each other over taxes and other issues in a testy debate Tuesday afternoon.

They are vying for the seat being vacated by Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, in the Nov. 6 election.

One heated exchange came when Latimer, D-Rye, answered a question about keeping doctors from leaving New York with measures such as capping “pain and suffering” damages. He advocated a different approach: creating a system under which doctors who generate many lawsuits pay higher insurance rates while those who don’t pay less.

Cohen, a Republican, accused his opponent of failing to give a straight answer.

Moderator Steve Scott, anchor and host of “Eye on Politics” on WCBS Newsradio 880, stopped the bickering and asked Cohen if he supported capping the damage awards.

“Yes, and I think that we need to recognize that capping pain and suffering is a beginning to solving some of the health-care issues in our state,” Cohen said.

When Cohen repeated a charge that the Westchester County Board of Legislators raised county taxes 46 percent during the 11 years Latimer served on it, Latimer took him to task for aggregating the number over more than a decade.

“Bob, why don’t you give them the right number? Why don’t you tell them that it’s less than four percent a year?” Latimer said, adding later: “How much do you spend on a quart of milk? Do you aggregate it ... and say, ‘I spent $10,000 on milk over 13 years?’”

The 37th Senate District they both hope to serve includes Rye, Rye town, Bedford, Eastchester, Harrison, Mamaroneck, North Castle, White Plains and parts of Yonkers and New Rochelle.

The debate, held at 800 Westchester Ave., a corporate office building, was sponsored by the Westchester County Association with the Building and Realty Institute, the Builders Institute and the Construction Industry Council of Westchester and the Hudson Valley.

Cohen continued to fault Latimer for skipping a vote on creating a Tier 6 pension plan scaling back benefits for new state and local government employees.

“To me, that’s not the way to be a legislator,” Cohen said. “To be a legislator, you have to stand up.”

Latimer said he left the legislative chamber on principle.

“The vote was jammed through at four o’clock in the morning,” he said.